Sunday, September 25, 2011

Remember Viv Nicholson who won £152,319 (equivalent of £5m today) on the pools fifty years ago this weekend? She famously vowed to “spend, spend, spend” and that is what she did. Within four years all the money had gone, her husband had died in a car crash and she was declared bankrupt.

When the Nicholsons won the money, he was a miner and they lived in Castleford, Yorkshire. First things first, they held grand parties for their friends and drank themselves into oblivion. Then they started buying things, a new house in Leeds and cars – including the Jag that her husband died in and a pink Cadillac for her.

When her husband died, VIv Nicholson was left with nothing because the courts declared that everything they had bought belonged to her husband. In four short years, she had gone from rich beyond her dreams to destitute.

Now fifty year on, Mrs Nicholson lives in a care home and says that if she had her time again, she would not do anything different – foolish woman!